Tag: Amazon Cloud

While researching web server frameworks, I ran across something that seemed very odd. I found what appeared to be unsecured Cloud Cluster controls. And using Shodan I could tell the difference between the ones that were using account login control and those that were surprisingly completely open to the public.

Twisted Web is a Python based web server used in many network applications. Over the years I have noticed that specific versions seem to be used for different tasks. I ran into one the other day that I do not remember seeing before.

An internet search using Shodan (the “search engine for Internet-connected devices”) for Twisted Web servers returned some odd results that I did not recognize. A specific version (10.2.0) returned what appeared to be some sort of cloud control interface on the internet.

If you go to the “Shodan.io” website and search for “twistedweb/10.2.0” it will list all of the systems in question, as seen below:

There seem to be password protected ones and what appear to be completely unprotected ones. The difference being password protected ones contain a login.html file in the Shodan return, the completely open ones point to index.html.

So to have Shodan find all of the ones that appear completely open to the public, just search for “twistedweb/10.2.0 index.html” as seen below:

As you can see there are more than 700 of them. They appear to be DataStax Enterprise Cluster Storage controls as seen in this picture from a DataStax YouTube demo:

From the Datastax YouTube video it explains that you can completely control and monitor the Cluster storage from this interface. I was thinking this was something that really shouldn’t be completely open to the public on the internet. There must be a “require login” setting that people are just not using to secure them. As I wasn’t sure I ran the information by my friends at Evident.io.

“What you are seeing here is the failure to implement proper security controls around administrative interfaces of, in this case, Enterprise Cassandra NoSQL clusters. The unprotected administrative interface gives remote attackers the ability to connect to the cluster and perform administrative functions without authentication or resistance. This is often the result of business pressure to deploy technology to solve complex problems, but failure by the business to invest in time and resources to help those product teams protect the infrastructure and services themselves. A simple verification of security control deployment around this kind of technology would prevent this security incident from happening in the first place, and guarantee continued protection against mistakes that create unnecessary risk for the company,” said Tim Prendergast, co-founder and CEO of Evident.io.

There must be some way to protect these systems, or to notify cloud users of these issues. Well, according to Prendergast, there is:

“Tools like the Evident Security Platform (ESP) help prevent these kinds of issues from being exploited by attackers by providing comprehensive visibility into the security controls deployed in your cloud, or alternatively you could build your own set of custom security controls through the custom signatures feature. Either way, nobody should operate their cloud environment without fast, accurate, and actionable information on these types of risks. The only way to protect your organization from suffering due to unprotected attack surfaces is to create a continuous, enforceable security practice around your cloud.”

As we have seen here, some improperly protected cloud controls across the world were found very easy using Shodan. We could also easily differentiate between systems that had account login controls (I hope they used strong passwords) and those that didn’t. The advantages of using the cloud are obvious, but like any computing resource they must be protected properly from online threats.

About the Author

Daniel W. Dieterle is an internationally published author and computer security researcher with over 20 years’ experience in the IT field. His technical “How-To” articles have been featured in numerous computer magazines, and referenced by both industry websites and the media. He has also written three Ethical Hacking Security books based on Kali Linux, including latest book, “Basic Security Testing with Kali Linux 2” – which contains a chapter on using Shodan.